SEATTLE - Satellites pushing for more urban farming have some of their neighbors riled up.
A city council committee is considering expanding the city's farm structure to allow people to grow and sell food. The ordinance would also allow people to keep more chickens and some other types of livestock in the city.
John Hurd's is not your typical farmer.
"I'm a musician and carpenter, and my wife is a research scientist," he explains.
Hurd's backyard is a peaceful urban oasis away from the bustle of the big city. He points to his blueberries and ripe raspberries, his tomatoes and bean plants.
"And over here we have our chicken corner. Here's the chicken coop," he points to the fenced in back corner of the yard.
Hurd's made a bargain of sorts, with his three chickens.
"We give them all of our yard waste, kitchen scraps, garden prunings and they give us eggs and fertilizer."
He might get a few more chickens if he could.
But a another group of Seattle residents has only experienced the negative side of urban farm. They attended a public hearing tonight and spoke against a proposal that would allow city residents to keep up to eight chickens in their yards.
"Chickens are noisy, they stink," said a Seattle woman who lives next to a neighbor with a chicken coop.
"My neighbors and I noticed increased rodents in the yard," says another woman who says she tried to withhold judgment about the chicken coop next door, until it began attracting vermin.
But the same city plan to allow for more chickens, also allows for bigger gardens and small urban farms, like the one managed by Eddie Hill, right in the middle of public housing and above I-5. Hill's garden gives kids jobs. He wants to expand so they can harvest and sell food, because he feels a garden grows much more than just produce.
"We're definitely building a community," says Hill.
The council will vote on the expanded ordinance in August.
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